pfsmith0

May be obvious, but use the Master Volume knob on the top of the unit to turn up your signal.

The IK Multimedia iLoud speakers are quite impressive for their size.

Regarding USB, quite a few of us have had the pins on the USB port break off. Check the rear of your unit to see of the USB connector has that black plastic center plug still intact. When (not if) that breaks off then you'll need to replace the USB connector. Do a search here for Mouser and you should be able to find the replacement part number.They're around $2 or so, but the soldering job is a little tricky.

There may be programs running in the background interfering with the ability to stream audio w/o glitches. Download and run LatencyMon to see if your new laptop has any issues along these lines.

Question, and you probably can't answer this since you're not live anymore, but does the squeal go away when you unplug the guitar?

You can treat PRE models as just a different tone palette from which to choose from. They may have different distortion characteristics and frequency response than FULL models. You can see some data describing these differences here.

msec per beat = 60000/bpm. So 120 bpm = 60000/120 = 500msec per beat. bpm = 60000/(msec per beat). So 300msec per beat = 200 bpm.

Links have been updated.

I just saw this in the DAW forum I frequent. They had a bad hum when a Focusright audio interface was USB connected to their computer. The hum went away when they replaced the USB cable with one that had a ferrite choke on it. Perhaps that may solve some of the problems that pop here now and then.

And this method works very well.

Try "ejecting" the HD500 first thru Windows "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media". Perhaps that will solve the lock up.

Wait a second. That link above points to a thread where people say the HD500 does NOT have a SPDIF problem. Only Helix. My default configuration is with SPDIF and I've never, ever had a problem. If someone is having a problem I suspect it's the interface (I use an RME UFX which is notorious for having rock solid drivers). To the OP, the only potential difference you might notice between USB and SPDIF is latency. The audio quality should be the same as they're both sending audio digitized by the HD500. In my case, I had no more USB ports available so I used the SPDIF port which was unused.

This happened to me as well. All I did was plug in the USB cable slightly off-center and "snap", the black plastic center piece fell out.I was able to replace the connector without any issues at all, but I'm used to soldering and taking things apart. I removed the PCB to get access to the top and bottom layers and had to suck solder off both sides of the old thru-hole USB connector to get it out without tearing up any traces. You don't need to replace the USB chip if all that's broken is the connector. A great USB connector replacement can be bought here from Mouser. In case the link doesn't work, the Mouser part # is 649-61729-1011BLF. They cost less than $1 USD each. Since it's barely usable without it, there's little to lose in trying to replace it.

To support hurghanico's statement, you have a buffer between the 10' cables. This acts to isolate the cables form each other. You won't get the same degradation as a 30' cable. It'll look more like a single 10' cable.

10ft of cable should minimal impact on your tone.

You can search these forums for how to clean/restore the switches. I'm sure that's the problem.

With nothing plugged in you get noise coming out, right? Does the level change with the Master Volume control? Does it change when you select different inputs (Guitar, Aux, Variax)? Is the looper light on? Can you turn the looper off with the buttons? If so, does it stay off when you switch to a new patch? Do you hear the noise with the SPDIF or USB outputs? Do you hear the noise when you engage the tuner (assuming it's set to mute when activated)?

Measurements of gain and I/O levels were made and summarized here. As you can see, the XLR outputs have 9.4dB less gain than the 1/4" outputs while the headphone output has 15.4 more gain. So it all depends on how much gain your monitors have, but you won't lose much fidelity with the headphone output. You'll just lose the ability to use headphones. Also, as noted in the measurements, the pad cuts (only) the guitar input by 5.4dB and Line increases the 1/4" output (only) by 6.1dB compared to Amp. Depending on the length of cables you're talking about, XLR -> TRS will maintain a balanced/shielded connection so it'll give you the highest quality/lowest noise signal. Next best is probably to stay with the TRS input of your monitors and using either the 1/4" or headphone outputs.

I wonder if it could just be a faulty/worn power plug that fits in the POD. Mine seems a little loose and might easily lose connection if something wiggles it the right way. Not sure if this would be a plug or socket issue, tho.

Let's see if I remember this right. The mixer has 2 channels, Path A and Path B. Both paths are stereo. The mixer output is stereo. So you can pan Path A and Path B anywhere you want in the stereo field. But when it gets converted to mono by plugging a single 1/4" jack into one of the outputs, or you use a mono FX at the end of your chain, then the L/R stereo field gets converted to a L+R mono signal. You should get the same signal regardless of the L/R panning in the mixer (unless there's that balance control vs pan control thing going on in the Pod - can't remember and maybe not pertinent here). But if you are using a single XLR output w/o a final mono FX then yes, you want the mixer pan set to center. That's what I do. I set the Master to the level my sound guy likes. It's usually between 30-70%. Regarding headphone 1/4" SNR vs normal 1/4" SNR, the only difference I can see is when you crank up the headphone output so its signal is very large. By the time it gets to the other end of the snake it'll have to be attenuated (cuz it's too big). On the process, all the noise it picks up along the way will also get attenuated. This will work as long as the FoH mixer can tolerate the huge headphone output levels. IIRC, it can reach more than +/10Vp.

You're looking for a 1/4" mono TS plug to XLR male adapter. I recommend one with a length of wire since the hard, self-contained versions will stick out the back of your pod unsupported and can more easily cause damage when someone trips over it. Something like this should work well (less than $7). Note, however, that you're starting from an unbalanced signal so, depending on how long the snake is to the mixer, you may get some hum/noise pickup along the way. The microphone outputs are made specifically for this application. But you only want to use 1 line so you'll lose half your stereo signal. There are two easy solutions, 1) just go ahead and lose 1/2 your signal. This is my default usage and I don't miss anything I've lost (1/2 a ping-pong delay, stereo reverb fx, etc). Try this 1st to make sure you really need to capture the other half of the signal. 2) if you have an extra FX block, put a mono FX at the end of the signal chain. That way the L & R signals are the same, so you won't be losing anything when you throw away half your signal when going down to one line. With only 1 line going to the mixer, you're basically dealing with a mono setup. Do you really need both halves of your stereo signal? It is a free and easy experiment to just plug the XLR snake into your L output and listen to what you get. You may be surprised it'll be just fine. Like I said. This is my default setup and use it ALL the time.

Hold on, Plugging a 1/4" TS jack into the normal 1/4" output will sum L&R to give you a mono signal. You'll get both signals. This is one of the preferred ways. Plugging a 1/4" TS jack into the headphone does NOT sum L&R but shorts out one of those. All you get is the other half. I don't think you'll destroy anything but it's poor practice to short a signal to ground like this. Using a 1/4" TRS - XLR adapter will apply the L/R signal to the +/- pins, giving you L-R (or R-L). It does NOT give you the stereo output. This is a new signal and probably not what you intended. If you get any sound at all it'll be all wonky.

"no matter what is plugged in". Do you get the feedback when nothing is plugged in?

Does the 1/4" plug fit in the Aux jack? If so, then I'd say "yes". There's something broken off inside the Phones jack.

Headphone impedance is not mentioned in the manuals, but the Line 6 FAQ on Headphones has this... Q: What is the recommended headphone ohm rating for use with Line 6 products? A: For devices with a 1/4" output, we recommend headphones rated between 150-600 ohm (pro or semi-pro level) studio headphones for best results. For those with an 1/8" output, headphones designed for MP3 player usage are usually a good match. Results may vary between headphone models and manufacturers.